Gary Lombardo

The Madhouse and five other stories Gary Lombardo

From the premier modern teller of shocking tales comes six new stories that will thrill and astonish you.

The Madhouse

In a psychotherapy group, six psychotic patients decide to murder the female facilitator because she has enraged them. And when she beseeches her colleague to stop her from being strangled, he matter-of-factly says, "As a firm believer in free choice, I will not and cannot discourage them from doing what they choose to do."

Miracle on Christmas Eve

When a strange virus of unknown origin spreads across the land, the liberal mayor of a small town shutters houses of worship. But Pastor Fitzpatrick of the Church of Jesus defies him, and stays open. And the most incredible thing happens when six cops show up at Fitzpatrick's church to arrest him!

The Color of Love

Deeply disillusioned by their prejudicial countrymen, an interracial couple make plans to escape to a place where there is only love. Does such a place exist? Cory and Raveena believe it does, for the note they left behind says, "In life we were persecuted for the color of our skin, and were compelled to leave this hateful world to escape the pain. But we are now in a place where there is only love."

I'm Sorry, Mom

On a cold snowy day, Kirk Robbins has a heart to heart with his verbally abusive mother, who listens to everything he has to say without insult or interruption.

Pretty Little Girl

When Emma, a Siberian Husky, becomes depressed after her companion suddenly dies, her masters take her to a shelter to find a replacement. But some things in this world are not what they appear to be, and this shelter is one of them.

Gateway to the Past



In 2020, nineteenth-century fiction-lover Jules Raymond mails a fifty-five-year-old order form to a bookstore that closed in 1978, and a week later receives his four books! Determined to find out who sent them, he travels to the bookstore, steps through a door at the end of a long hallway, and finds himself back in 1965!